FAQ - gaddlord/mtg.studio GitHub Wiki
Table of Contents
Why can't I add spoilers or single cards myself?
What to do when I get "JPEG error #53" error?
Why my deck quantities are not synched with my collection?
How to use MTG Studio as portable application?
Will MTG Studio have a multiplayer?
Why some cards have missing Prices?
How to enable Anti-Aliasing (edge smoothing) of fonts?
How to report a MTG Studio crash?
How to fix a broken collection?
Can you build a MTG Online/Arena bot for me?
I would like to help MTG Studio. Can I help?
How to Import Collection from one version to another?
How to disable the annoying ding sound navigating cards
MTG Studio is minimized in the tray bar, asks for password?
Duplicate cards - Abbey Matron (1) and Abbey Matron (2)
What is the background of the project?
I want to have the database of MTG Studio. Can I use it?
Why my Firewall says that MTG Studio is trying to send data?
Why B.F.N. from Unglued edition has mana cost of "BBBBBx3"?
Will there be a Linux, MacOS, iOS, Android version?
Will MTG Studio support any other Trading Card Game?
How I can quickly search for cards?
If I buy MTG Studio, is this a one-time purchase, or will I
Where my collection file is stored?
MTG Studio fails to start. What should I do?
I have lost my registration key. Now what?
How prices work in MTG Studio?
Which features you don't plan implementing?
How to migrate to another machine?
Why can't I add spoilers or single cards myself?
I am making the new set addition as automated as possible but yet it is not a process which can be easily outsourced/cloudsourced since there are a lot of manual and automated processed apart from the basic card details such as
- We manually update the Banned and Restricted rules. We also keep information if the card is Legal or has a Legal reprint
- We manually add new game formats
- The process for automated updating legality cache takes 10 minutes performing ~76'565'753 operations.
- We add manually Card of the Day details
- We add manually Release Notes for cards
- We add manually Lexicon for cards
- We add manually Functional Reprints, Mana Cost Reprints, Mirrored Pairs, Cycle cards
- We have automated procedures for adding latest Oracle rules
- We spell check every single card rules and flavor text
- We have semi automated procedures for adding the latest MTG Online, TCG Player, Multiverse and Wagic card identifiers
- We have semi automated procedures for "linking" our cards to external card stores for fetching prices
- We have lots of automated data quality checks which run for more than 10 minutes
- We manually add artist contact details
- We manually add the set expansion symbols
- We manually add more than 50 attributes for new editions such as border color, product type, copyright message, card breakdows, popular third party Magic software set abbreviations, set description, recommended market price, design team, development team, codename, expansion symbol description, plane
- We manually add new mechanics, and keyword abilities and Magic terms and link them to cards. This 350+ abilities linked to 52 000+ cards. Which is 18.2+ million cached values.
- We manually add strictly better, strictly worst, functional reprints, and color shifted cards, cycle cards.
- We manually assign the watermark for each card
- We semi-manually mark mana producing cards
- We manually add theme decks and sample decks in various deck file formats
- We perform spell checking against a very custom own developed Magic dictionary
- We mostly manually added 50 000+ combos
- If user interface is built for all those tasks the final distribution would be 100 instead of 30 MB
- We run a customly written spell checker and support a custom Magic dictionary of more than 13'000 terms. The spell check itself runs for over an hour.
...and it is not only about data. Whenever a new set comes along Wizards constantly introduce new stuff such as: Guild Mana, Hybrid Mana, 1/2 Power, toughness, new special symbols such as Chaos or Untap. They are really inventive and come with lots of custom stuff which needs to be coded in various areas of thee application.
- Last but not least - the most valuable asset of MTG Studio is its rich content and we are not willing to open source or sell our proprietary database.
We value quality over quantity and we tend to believe MTG Studio is one of the "purest" MTG database in the world.
What to do when I get "JPEG error #53" error?
This problem occurs when there is a broken downloaded image. For example in your case it should be the Abyssal Prosecutor one.
Please open your Card Art\Wotc folder and delete the jpg files within. (details on where this folder is on your Windows can be read at [Directory-Structure])
- Open MTG Studio
- Choose from the main menu Tools|Open Configuration Folder
- It will open Windows Explorer. Within the opened folder where should be a subfolder Card Art
- Within the Card Art folder there should be a WotC folder
- Open it and delete all *.jpg files within. 6. Restart MTG Studio
Why this happens? - because your network connectivity sometimes goes down and partially downloaded Jpeg file gets stored on your disk.
Why my deck quantities are not synched with my collection?
There is a common request/question on why the quantities of a card in deck are not synched with the collection Used column.
There are many reasons for not doing this:
- You can open more than one deck in MTG Studio
- Some of the decks may be yours and you would like to synch but some can be simple downloaded from Internet
- The decks are stored externally of MTG Studio in plain text, XML, or other file formats. If those are modified outside MTG Studio discrepancies in the numbers will appear
How to use MTG Studio as portable application?
There is a Portable installation of MTG Studio which requires no installation and can be copied over an USB/Flash drive or used from a shared location service such as Dropbox.
Download and unzip MTG Studio portable from https://mtg.studio
The collection file is stored as mtgstudio.collection in your MTG Studio application folder and will be carried over the USB or Dropbox account.
Read more on what Portable Application is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_application
Will MTG Studio have a multiplayer?
No. Due to some legal constraints and Wizards of the Coast patents no one willing to create an electronic simulation of the game is allowed to do so. A single player (aka test mode) can be allowed as long as it does not enforce automatically the rules of the card.
Even though MTG Studio is not having its own multiplayer, you can use it to build decks which are compatible with other popular multiplayer software like MTG Online, Magic Workstation and other.
Why some cards have missing Prices?
MTG Studio's card prices are taken from more than 70 external sources - big online card stores. Most of those stores does not support versioned cards like Forest (3) for example, promo cards, or tokens. MTG Studio works to the best of its effort to have as many prices offered as possible but sometimes simply the data is not sufficient. MTG Studio cannot be held liable for not being able to provide accurate or up to date prices for your cards - it is simple out of our hands.
How to enable Anti-Aliasing (edge smoothing) of fonts?
This is a Windows setting. Go to Control Panel | Display | Appearance | Effects and for Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts select Clear Type.
https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/279005/164556067-cd0c0dcd-55e8-47fc-a4b1-8d2896310c4c.png
How safe is MTG Studio?
MTG Studio is certified as 100% clean, no spyware, no viruses, no adware software by well recognized software download sites as Softpedia.com, FindMySoftware.com, and SoftDll.com, nfd.com, Softalizer.com, Safe-install.com.
The only exception to this rule is whenever an exceptional situation occurs MTG Studio will suggest you to send a bug report to the development team. On the window shown you will be able to see all the actual content being sent to us (which may include your machine configuration). The user is given the ability to cancel submitting such report.
How to report a MTG Studio crash?
If MTG Studio crashes it will prompt you for sending a bug report to the development team. Please click over the Send Report button.
https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/279005/164556212-2c8aa007-afb4-40e3-a23f-76a4a07b9486.png
If you do have a MtgStudioBugReport.txt file in your MTG Studio installation folder you can send it as well.
How to fix a broken collection?
Check your collection integrity from Tools|Check Collection Integrity menu (available in version 2.3 and later) Stop MTG Studio if running Move your mtgstudio.collection file from your configuration folder to drive c:.
Details on where your configuration folder is are available at https://github.com/gaddlord/mtg.studio/wiki/Directory-Structure
Delete the mtgstudio.collection file from your configuration folder start MTG Studio From File|Import|Collection|Previous MTG Studio Collection import your c:\mtgstudio.collection file
Can you build a MTG Online/Arena bot for me?
No. I had such ideas in the past which perished.
I would like to help MTG Studio. Can I help?
Thank you for your interested in MTG Studio but for the time being you can contribute by beta testing MTG Studio.
MTG Studio is written in the latest version of Delphi. It compiles out of 1 million+ lines of source code. It has some inline Assembly for speed optimizations and some parts of it are written in C++ linked as object files.
MTG Studio is developed by Gad D Lord at PalmROOT, Inc. - a microISV company based in Eastern Europe.
Currently Gad is the only developer and prefers working in a "lone wolf" mode.
You input is quite welcome for feature suggestions, bug reports, moderation of the forum or card pool verification.
Shoot an email to [email protected] and we can discuss.
How to Import Collection from one version to another?
Usually between most versions MTG Studio's collection files are compatible with the previous versions.
MTG Studio 3.66 - onwards uses new file format optimized for hundreds of thousands of cards.
In case you have a collection from older version of MTG Studio you can import it using the following procedure:
- Backup your 1.8.2 mtgstudio.collection file.
- Delete your 1.8.3 mtgstudio.collection file. It will be recreated if missing.
- Start MTG Studio 1.8.3. It will not display any cards under collection
- From File|Import menu import your 1.8.2 collection file.
How to disable the annoying ding sound navigating cards
How to disable the annoying ding sound when navigating from one card to another?
If these are starting to annoy you, turn them off by opening Control Panel and selecting the Sounds applet. Scroll down to Windows Explorer where you'll see Start Navigation and Complete Navigation.
Highlight the one you wish to silence and click the drop-down arrow next to the filename (start.wav in the picture below). Scroll up to the top and choose (None). Press OK to save your changes.
MTG Studio is minimized in the tray bar, asks for password?
I have pressed some combination or have clicked on one of the commands; the program is minimized in the tray bar and asks for password.
The default unlocking password is 1234. This is a new feature called "Minimize and Lock". It can be recalled with Shift+Ctrl+L key combination. The password can be changed from View | Options | Passwords dialog box.
Duplicate cards - Abbey Matron (1) and Abbey Matron (2)
Why there're duplicated cards? For example I saw 2 Abbey Matron - Abbey Matron (1) and Abbey Matron (2)?
These cards are actually not duplicates. It appears that Wizards are printing some cards (which have the same Name, Card Type, P/T, Ruling, Flavor text, Expansion Symbol) with different Card Art from different artists. But never the less, this is not a bug but a feature. Having Abbey Matron (1) and Abbey Matron (2) will allow the people who play MTG in Necromancer multiplayer (currently under heavy development) to pick the favorite Abbey Matron to play with.
What is the background of the project?
Was the source code taken from another product? Which one?
MTG Studio is not a recoded, stolen, reversed or decompiled product. Nothing already done (except for some fragments from open-source projects) was used during MTG Studio creation. Of course MTG Studio is a product based on the experience and knowledge gathered while using other MTG products: Apprentice, Magic Suitcase, Magic Library, MTGO, Magic Workstation, Mindless, MAGMA, Forge, Magic Assistant and many others. Each one of them has its own plusses and minuses.
Which one is the best? All of them are good (but have you tried MTG Studio).
I want to have the database of MTG Studio. Can I use it?
No. The card pool database of MTG Studio is copyright protected and it is not allowed to use it. We are not selling it.
Why my Firewall says that MTG Studio is trying to send data?
MTG Studio has three inbuilt and automated features:
- it attempts to connect to mtg.studio server to check for newer version of the software
- it send analytics data for the which menus are most commonly used
- it attempts to automatically download the card art from server
Why B.F.N. from Unglued edition has mana cost of "BBBBBx3"?
Because the real mana cost of the card is "BBBBBBBBBBBBBBB" (15 black mana) and it will not fit into the mana cost column, the mana cost is abbreviated to "BBBBBx3".
The full list of cards with extraordinary mana cost is:
- B.F.N. - BBBBBx3
- Gleemax - single 1000000 mana image
- Little Girl - half white symbol
- Progenitus - WUBRGx2
- Khalni Hydra - Gx8
- Smelt/Herd/Saw - R/5G/1B
Will there be a Linux, MacOS, iOS, Android version?
I decided to develop only Windows version of the product. MTG Studio runs smoothly under Parallels, Virtual Box, and VM Ware on other platforms. If you are interested in a multiplatform solution check out makedeck.com
We also had success running MTG Studio on Mac using CrossOver emulation.
In case you believe such support is needed please vote at:
Web Version - https://mtgstudio.uservoice.com/forums/16948-mtg-studio-suggestions/suggestions/343279-online-deck-collection-editor Linux, MacOS - https://mtgstudio.uservoice.com/forums/16948-mtg-studio-suggestions/suggestions/334186-multi-platform-support MacOS - https://mtgstudio.uservoice.com/forums/16948-mtg-studio-suggestions/suggestions/10206879-add-support-for-macos Android - https://mtgstudio.uservoice.com/forums/16948-mtg-studio-suggestions/suggestions/1439489-android-app-to-view-collection
MTG Studio is developed for Windows only. It is compiled with Delphi under VMWare Fusion in Mac OS X 10.6.2. Which means it is 100% compatible with VM Ware and run flowlessly on Mac OS.
It is reported that MTG Studio does not run under Wine due to some internal Wine issues.
It is reported that MTG Studio runs on Madrake, gOS, Ubuntu without any issues. MTG Studio runs fine under Parallels and Virtual Box as well.
You can read more at here: https://mtg.studio
Will MTG Studio support any other Trading Card Game?
Currently MTG Studio supports only Magic the Gathering. There are no plans to support other TCG/CCG games in the nearest future.
How I can quickly search for cards?
Just type what you are seeking for in the focused Grid (click on the cards grid and start typing "Terror" for example). It is very simple - try it. Also you can use the Cards | Search | Quick Search function which does pretty the same as MSC and MWS. If you like to have the Quick Search box always visible - press the right mouse button over the toolbar and click "Customize..." find the Quick Search box and drag-and-drop it on the toolbar.
https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/279005/164556707-40aa9af9-b18e-4a65-ad3c-af919110f18f.jpg
If I buy MTG Studio, is this a one-time purchase, or will I have to re-buy
Read our Price and Registration Policy at https://github.com/gaddlord/mtg.studio/wiki/Price-and-Registration
Where my collection file is stored?
Configuration files are stored in:
Vista onwards:
C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\PalmROOT\MTG Studio X.Y.Z\Configuration
This is the folder where MTG Studio settings are stored. Username is the Windows username you use. X.Y.Z is the version of MTG Studio you are currently using.
Lets we assume that we are currently logged in Windows with the username Osvaldo and you are using MTG Studio 1.6.3, in this case the folder for settings will be "C:\Users\Osvaldo\AppData\Roaming\PalmROOT\MTG Studio 1.6.3".
Prior to Vista: the path is C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\PalmROOT\MTG Studio X.Y.Z
Within this folder the mtgstudio.collection file is stored.
MTG Studio fails to start. What should I do?
-
Restart your operating system (Windows)
-
Check you have write permissions to My Documents folder (or installation folder if running as portable).
-
Check if you are having your Anti-Virus software prevent MTG Studio from starting
-
Add MTG Studio to the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Execution_Prevention%20DEP exclusion list
To configure DEP settings
- Click 'Start', click 'Control Panel', and then double-click 'System'.
- Click the 'Advanced' tab. Then, under 'Performance', click 'Settings'.
- Click the 'Data Execution Prevention' tab.
- Click 'Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select' to select the 'OptIn' policy.
- Click 'Add' and add MTG Studio you do not want to use DEP with.
- Run MTG Studio as Administrator
I have lost my registration key. Now what?
Send an email to [email protected]. Provide details on whose account the key was issued and which email address you provided during the purchasing process.
It is best if you share your real name, email address, country, city, portal code, address, approximate date of purchase. This way we can track down your order quicker.
How prices work in MTG Studio?
There are two types of price lists - batch and online:
Batch Price Lists
Batch price lists are a list of thousands of cards and their prices available as a huge file which is imported in MTG Studio. Since those are available "in advance" after being imported they can be used for populating the Price and Market Price columns by taking the average price for non-foil cards.
Batch prices are downloaded from File | Import | Card Prices menu. In order to update the Collection Price and Market Price columns use File | Update Prices menu.
PRO:
- Those prices can be used automatically to fill-in Prices and Market Price columns
CONS:
- Since there is no way to prefer one Batch price list over another it puts an average non-foil price tag for you foil cards as well and disregards its condition, set, etc.
- Unfortunately there are not many Batch Lists vendors available on the market. Currently we do support just 2 Batch price list vendors ** ABU Games ** and Magic Traders
- Most of the back price lists do not provide Foil prices or prices for other special cards like Graded, Autographed, etc.
- The Update Prices process is lengthy and can take hours for a big collection (more than 10 000 cards).
Online Price Lists
Those price lists are available on demand (whenever you select a card). There are more than 70+ online stores which MTG Studio can take prices from.
Those prices are displayed in the Prices tab and also in the Pick Price dialog called when you press "..." button in Buy At and Sell At columns.
PRO:
- There are 70+ major price stores to pick from
- You have full control over the best possible price matching the cards quality, set, foilness, autographed or not, graded, etc.
CONS:
- You have to assign the best matching price manually for each card one by one from the Buy At and Sell At columns.
eBay Prices
MTG Studio can also look into eBay prices. You have to select a card and then use Online | eBay Sales menu.
Which features you don't plan implementing?
The features we don't plan implementing are as follows:
- Localization of the UI - we used to have it in the past but it is too much of a hassle to maintain up to date with our aggressive release schedules.
- UI Themes - the UI would come with a single theme
- Multiplayer - legally (due to WotC patent) we are not allowed to do a multiplayer.
- Cropped Card Art - we don't have reliable high quality cropped images for all cards ever printed and with the recent 20+ new full art layouts it becomes even useless feature
- Searching with SQL syntax - SQL attacks can lead to crash of the server. For security reasons we do not plan supporting them. Those attacks are called "SQL Injection".
- Searching with regular expressions (aka Regex) - regular expressions can be written in such a way so they can crash the server. For security reasons we do not plan supporting them. Those attacks are called "ReDoS attack".
- Artist Browser - we used to have a feature allowing to see Artist contact details and cards they have printed. We decided the contacts to be seen in Rules pane and the rest is not needed.
- Sealed Deck Generator - turned out it is not of high demand and excluded from the product.
- Deck Checksums - since we don't plan multiplayer and since both Apprentice and MWS Play are not abandonware the calculation of deck checksums is not needed any more.
How to migrate to another machine?
Make sure you backup your mtgstudo.collection file. Information on where it is located can be found at Directory Structure
- Install MTG Studio on your new machine and start MTG Studio
- Register your copy with the registration name/key you have
- Close MTG Studio
- Copy the mtgstudio.collection file from the old machine into the new one
- Start MTG Studio
Make sure that you also backup your decks if any.